Wednesday, 19 August 2015

By on August 19th, 2015 in Barbara, personal, science kits

08:12 – Only two more days until Barbara gets home. Colin reminded me that there was some supermarket roast beast sandwich meat in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten, so we had roast beast sandwiches and potato chips for dinner last night.

Since Barbara left, Colin and I have gotten through the first 15 episodes of Heartland series 7, leaving three more episodes to watch tonight to finish up series 7. Colin watches the livestock; I watch Amber Marshall. Then we’ll start re-watching series 8. We’re watching five episodes per night, so we should get through series 8 episode 7 before Barbara gets home. Series 9 premieres on October 4th, but we won’t start watching it until the series concludes next April or May, so that gives me plenty of time to go back and start with series 1 and make it all the way through all eight seasons at least once more, if not twice. Have I mentioned that I love Amber Marshall?

I spent most of yesterday making up solutions and filling bottles, which I’ll do again today. I keep my inventory spreadsheet sorted by number of finished bottles of each chemical, so the limiting items are always at the top and get addressed first. For example, yesterday I was down to four bottles of Fertilizer A, which goes in the biology kit non-regulated chemicals bag. So I made up 8 liters of Fertilizer A, which was sufficient to fill 66 bottles of that. That made the limiting item for those bags, Benedict’s Reagent, which I have nine bottles of in stock. At this point, I could make up nine more biology non-regulated chemical bags, but instead I’ll make up another four liters of Benedict’s reagent today and fill bottles, which makes the next limiting item neomycin sulfate powder, which I have 19 vials of in stock. And so on. Once I have enough of everything in stock to make up three dozen bags, we’ll do that and then start again on something else.



105 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 19 August 2015"

  1. nick says:

    Kinda sorta not so funny joke:

    One night, a U.S. Navy destroyer stops four Mexicans rowing towards Texas. The Captain gets on the loud-hailer and shouts, “Ahoy, small craft. Where are you headed?”

    One of the Mexicans puts down his oar, stands up, and shouts, “Gringo we are invading the United States of America to reclaim the territory taken by the USA during the 1800’s.”

    The entire crew on the destroyer doubles over in laughter. When the Captain finally catches his breath, he gets back on the loud-hailer and asks, “Just the four of you?”

    The same Mexican stands up again and shouts, “No, we’re the last four. The other 12 million are already there.

    (and having babies.)

    nick

  2. OFD says:

    And more like twice that number, 24 to 30 million; do we seriously believe “official” gummint stats anymore?

    Next question: how many hadji sleeper cells have crossed the Rio Grande over the years and where are they now and what are they doing? Let’s ask Snowden or Assange, they probably have better intel than our gummint.

    But…but…but….they’re Dreamers and they ‘do it out of love.’

  3. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    One thing I sense strongly in this ongoing presidential campaign is the underlying rage at what the government, progs, large corporations, and one-percenters are doing to what used to be our country. Otherwise, nonentities like Trump and Sanders would be getting no attention at all. I do wish that people would realize that Trump, Sanders, and others like them are part of the problem rather than any kind of solution. I’m afraid that a solution is coming, and it’s going to involve a lot of blood, guilty and innocent.

  4. nick says:

    Ok, I usually find the reader submitted articles on JWR’s Survival Blog useful enough that I read them. I don’t like the lack of a comments section, but the articles are usually worth at least a skim.

    HOWEVER.

    This week the “how to prep when poor” articles are in the “use as an negative example” category.

    http://survivalblog.com/low-budget-teotwawki-preps-part-1-by-e-j-h/

    http://survivalblog.com/low-budget-teotwawki-preps-part-2-by-e-j-h/

    There is very little about prepping cheaply, and a bunch of very questionable advice.

    One suggestion to get and use duct tape, and then hundreds of words of bad advice on security and defense.

    @RBT – the world needs the book, sooner rather than later.

    nick

    just a few examples:
    duct tape- use for splints– suggestions start “gather some sticks” Yikes, so many things that would be a better choice, paint stir sticks, rulers, yard stick, rolled newspaper or magazine, cardboard, the reflective bubble wrap dashboard protector in your car, ANYTHING before a stick.

    OR “Keep those inexpensive band-aids that never stick correctly on tight,
    Tie down that loony who is trying to raid you,”

    How about getting good bandaids to start with? Otherwise you’ve thrown the money away. And “tie down that loony”? SHOOT the loony! Beat him with sticks. TIE HIM DOWN? then what? Feed him and keep him as a pet? It’s TEOTWAWKI, there is no cop to take him to jail. (Not to mention it isn’t that good as a restraint.)

    If you want to use tape as a restraint get some filament tape. http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-15907/3M-Strapping-Tape/3M-8959-Bi-Directional-Tape-1-x-55-yards

    And the defense info, OMFG. “the point of less lethal methods is to not kill/maim/permanently hurt your assailant. You want to stop them, so that you can take them prisoner or make them get the heck outta’ your way and also tell their buddies something to the effect of “Those people down there are complete lunatics! Stay away from them.”” Take them prisoner? Out psycho the MS13 gangbangers and cannibals? ARE YOU F’IN KIDDING ME?

    Dig a tiger trap, but not punji sticks? tin cans as caltrops? for Pete’s sake this is horrible advice. And NEVER use milk jugs for water storage.

    And it goes on from there.

    nick

  5. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    @RBT – the world needs the book, sooner rather than later.

    The book would be finished if I could treat it like a job instead of working on it only in my copious spare time.

    Unfortunately, I already have a more-than-full-time job doing science kits, and this relocation thing has been a time-sink as well. I hope that once things settle down this autumn I can get more time in on it.

  6. brad says:

    @Nick: that advice sounds truly awful, gads. Just about as realistic as the pretend-warfare daydreams I had as a small kid.

    Windows 10: I took the leap today, and punched the upgrade button. It’s the usual thing – I figure as an IT teacher I need to know my way around the stuff my students will be using. For Win8, I just refused. But Win10 is usable enough (I’ve had it in a VM), so…

    Anyhow, the upgrade chugged along for quite a while, rebooted 2-3 times, and now? Perfect. Everything basically back to normal. My only notes for anyone else considering this:

    – Don’t take the Express Settings. Look for the small link to advanced settings, and turn all of the MS spyware off.

    – Once you have your start menu with the tiles, delete all the tiles you don’t want.

    – The upgrade turns the MS “customer experience improvement program” on, even if you had it turned off in Win7. It’s probably worth opting out. There are various “to-do” out there for this – here’s the one I followed

    – Note that the to-do also shows how to disable the Application Experience Improvement program. This is supposed to automatically update programs as needed to run with your current version of Windows. In practice, who knows what kind of updates MS will shove down that pipe?

  7. OFD says:

    “Out psycho the MS13 gangbangers and cannibals? ARE YOU F’IN KIDDING ME?”

    Those folks generally have a pile of good advice and tips but that right there is yet another indication that the more unpleasant facts concerning our current reality haven’t really hit home with most peeps yet, and won’t, until some major SHTF. Despite the plethora of stories out there on just how bad things have gotten and the many incidents of savage attacks on regular citizens.

    No prisoners unless there is still a working “law enforcement” and facility situation available; after that’s gone, we’re not gonna have the resources to support formerly violent and savage prisoners.

    “…I’m afraid that a solution is coming, and it’s going to involve a lot of blood, guilty and innocent…”

    Normalcy bias and the hoping against hope that things will eventually turn out OK and that we still have a shot with one or another President (can you imagine???!!!) who will ‘set things right’ again, as if they ever were ‘right’ or that we could somehow go back to those halcyon days of yesteryear with Ozzie and Harriet and My Three Sons.

    The rulers may be having quite a laugh for themselves about now; they may actually be setting this up so Cankles fails and gets threatened with indictments and jail and Trump gets in after all. What do y’all think that would be like, assuming that right away he’s gonna be told what the score is and how high he’s allowed to jump? He could end up being a Juan Peron or Mussolini type, as the rulers decide to swing back from outright Bolshevism. And have some more chuckles at our rube- and bumpkin-like confusion.

  8. Jenny says:

    Last week RBT mentioned using inexpensive wash cloths as an imperfect substitute for tampons.

    Menstrual cups may be a good alternative for many women. Though they have been around for years I don’t believe they are widely known.

  9. OFD says:

    “… turn all of the MS spyware off.”

    Word has it that no matter what and how much we turn off, M$ still gets back, side and front doors to our chit.

    Then, of course, there’s our ISPs anyway; already a problem.

    But as a teacher or IT staff with cube-proles to care for, one must do what one must do, as I have ample cause to know. Hep ’em out with Windows Whatever plus their apps and fix it so they can connect to Craigslist and Twitter.

    I’m looking at a couple of VPN solutions for here about now and if one of them can beef up the security with the remaining Windows machine, I feel better about the rest of my boxes, all Linux or BSD.

  10. nick says:

    RE: trump winning. If he does, I figure it will be like Arnold as Governor of CA. Lots of talk and bluster, but then the reality of the MASSIVE entrenched burro-cracy.

    In the end, he really didn’t change much, got HIS cronies some bennies, and then left office.

    Just look at a printed phone book, at all the blue .gov pages in the front. MOST of those agencies and offices would have to go to get any real change. And that is not gonna happen.

    nick

  11. nick says:

    So here’s something to think about, while there is time.

    What do you do with prisoners if SHTF? I’m talking about a real collapse?

    Do you just walk away and leave them locked up to die? How can you justify turning every sentence into death and torture? And do you think that the prisoner’s friends on the outside are going to just let them rot if they can do anything about it?

    Do you open the gates and let them take their chances in the new world too?

    Do you selectively release some but not others? Who decides? How do they get away from the facility? No busses, no cars…

    Anyway you slice it, it isn’t pretty.

    nick

    added: do you suppose the .gov already has a plan? Want to bet on which way it goes?

  12. Chad says:

    I’m going to stockpile alcohol, cigarettes, tampons, and low-tech porn. When the SHTF I will be a post-apocalyptic billionaire. 🙂

  13. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    @Jenny

    Yes, thanks. In the book draft, I’ve already covered the Diva Cup and its competitors. I don’t many women of menstrual age who would be comfortable discussing this with me, but those I’ve spoken with mostly haven’t ever used one. Of the two who have, one said she much preferred tampons, but the other actually preferred the cup after she got used to it.

  14. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    You know, I’ve never understood the prevalent mindset that our remote ancestors were somehow not as bright as modern people. They were, if anything, on average brighter because they had a lot more serious problems to deal with.

    So I ask myself, what would they do with prisoners? They didn’t have jails or prisons, so their options were pretty limited. Across culture and across millennia, they came up with two standard solutions: (1) kill them, and (2) enslave them. I think slavery is much, much worse than death, for both the slaver and the slavee, so I know which I’d choose. I wouldn’t waste ammunition on prisoners, though. I’d club them to death.

  15. OFD says:

    “Do you selectively release some but not others? Who decides? How do they get away from the facility? No busses, no cars…”

    It will depend largely on what law and order is still in force; the less there is, the more ad-hoc such decisions are likely to be, and probably based on anger, fear, etc., per usual, more than common sense.

    “I’m going to stockpile alcohol, cigarettes, tampons, and low-tech porn. When the SHTF I will be a post-apocalyptic billionaire. :)”

    You’ll need to protect those stockpiles, either yourself and/or other security options. We can pretty much guarantee that someone will try to take that stuff away from you and be willing to expend a lot of time and effort at it, too.

  16. Harold Combs says:

    Trump may be many things but he has done a lot to educate us. He has pointed out the fourteenth amendment does NOT automatically grant citizenship to all babies born on US soil. That is a feature of immigration law. The 14th has the qualification clause ” subject to the jurisdiction thereof” which is already used in immigration law to prevent children born to foriegn diplomats and prisoners from getting US citizenship. A simple change to immigration law will remove that “feature” that attracts illegals like flies to honey.

  17. nick says:

    @chad,

    those are the traditional items, although IIRC when you aren’t getting enough calories your sex drive stops, so the porn might be more valuable as toilet paper 🙂

    See Selco’s observations for what is valuable when in a city cut off by warfare. It changes over time. See also his observations about the risks of trading, and the risks of venturing out for items that are not critical to survival.

    http://shtfschool.com/resources/some-thoughts-on-preparing-for-bartering/

    http://shtfschool.com/food/sweets-and-treats-in-a-survival-situation/

    http://shtfschool.com/trading/first-trades-after-collapse/

    http://shtfschool.com/basic-survival/survivals-first-lesson-staying-out-of-trouble/

    All of Selco’s site is worth reading. He’s truly been there and done that. No one that I’m aware of has every called BS on him. Even if you aren’t looking for his type of collapse there is value in the lessons and observations he shares.

    nick

  18. nick says:

    @RBT, got one in moderation.

    I thought you raised the link limit to 4? Maybe it got reset during the back and forth with the template changes?

    nick

  19. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    No, I raised it from 2 to 3. I just now raised it to four. Any message with five or more links now gets held for moderation.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    Two GI Jane’s make it through Ranger School.  I have my doubts. Looking at their photos, I don’t see the physical strength there. Mental strength can be developed a lot faster than physical strength (women vs men).  I knew a lot of female pilots who were excellent (instructor pilots included) pilots because they were smart, coordinated and focused. I don’t know why a qualified Apache pilot would want to go through Ranger School other than to say I’m first.

    I’m a sexist for this post. Probably a racist, too, even though the ladies look WHITE!

  21. nick says:

    Thanks, I ALMOST obfuscated one of the links, but then I mis-remembered….

    nick

  22. Chad says:

    Two GI Jane’s make it through Ranger School. I have my doubts. Looking at their photos, I don’t see the physical strength there. Mental strength can be developed a lot faster than physical strength (women vs men). I knew a lot of female pilots who were excellent (instructor pilots included) pilots because they were smart, coordinated and focused. I don’t know why a qualified Apache pilot would want to go through Ranger School other than to say I’m first.

    I may be wrong, so someone with more current knowledge feel free to correct me. Women aren’t allowed in ground combat. There are no females in the infantry. So, this is just a publicity stunt. Unless policy changes, those two women will never see combat. That’s insulting to all of the male Rangers who WILL see combat. These two female soldier will walk around with “Ranger” on their sleeve nut have no danger of ever being in combat.

    IIRC, the only females allowed in direct combat are pilots and med-evac. You’re not going to see any women kicking down doors in Iraq to clear a building. How about before we send them to Ranger school we make them eligible for Selective Service and combat roles in general. Until then, it’s all PR horse shit.

  23. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    No, there was just an article in the paper this morning that said the Army (or perhaps all of the armed services, IDSTR) is opening nearly all combat positions/specialties to women.

  24. Dave says:

    “No, there was just an article in the paper this morning that said the Army (or perhaps all of the armed services, IDSTR) is opening nearly all combat positions/specialties to women.”

    I have never served in the military, but I think women in combat (other than pilots) are a mistake. I think there are women out there who can kick my butt, but that doesn’t qualify them to serve in combat.

    Even though I’m a civilian, I understand something about combat that the ivory tower academics fail to grasp. The difference between a D and an F in academia is that you have to take the class over. The difference between a D and an F in the combat world is whether or not you accomplished the mission before you died.

  25. OFD says:

    Let it rip, I say. Fuck it. I’m done caring. They’re dead set on playing PR games on one hand, and shoving womyn into combat roles on the other and they will reap the whirlwind. Ask any genuine special operations types what they think of this, or for that matter, any genuine Marine or Army infantry grunt; hell, don’t go by me, just an old fossil from ancient times.

    “I’m a sexist for this post. Probably a racist, too…”

    You forgot to mention your micro-aggressions. Sexist and rayciss goes without saying; yo, you a lost cause, homes.

    “All of Selco’s site is worth reading. He’s truly been there and done that. No one that I’m aware of has every called BS on him. Even if you aren’t looking for his type of collapse there is value in the lessons and observations he shares.”

    +100

    Rapid urban collapse in a modern industrial nation. Indeed. Transpose it to the U.S. of Amnesia and ratchet it up by several orders of magnitude, in re: population, density, preponderance of firearms, and tradition of violence being as Murkan as cherry pie.

    But as Mr. nick says, even if we don’t end up like that, there is a wealth of info at his site, including solid IT security intel. Obviously been there and done that, and likewise, I have yet to see anyone call BS on him.

  26. pcb_duffer says:

    One reason to go through Ranger school: It makes promotions easier, especially amongst the officer corps. Look at the O-6 and above, even those who aren’t ground pounders or cannon cockers, and you’ll see a lot of those Ranger tabs.

  27. Lynn says:

    I do wish that people would realize that Trump, Sanders, and others like them are part of the problem rather than any kind of solution. I’m afraid that a solution is coming, and it’s going to involve a lot of blood, guilty and innocent.

    Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

    I feel a need to vote Democrat next spring here in The Great State of Texas.

    I still think that we are headed on a slow boat to dystopia as the middle class slowly dies out.

  28. MrAtoz says:

    The only pilots I knew in 20 years that had Ranger Tabs got them before becoming pilots. There aren’t any Ranger Aviation Units in the Army. There may be pilots now who tried out for the pre-qualification course that units run. Why the Army spends money on that knowing those peeps aren’t switching their MOS is beyond me. PC and “Hooah! I *am* changing my MOS so I can kill rag heads!”The 160th “Night Stalkers” fly Rangers and Special Ops around, but Ranger Qualification is not requirement.

  29. Dave says:

    I still think that we are headed on a slow boat to dystopia as the middle class slowly dies out.

    I think you are right. To get my engineering degree, I had to take what I thought were some stupid humanities classes. In one of them the professor define the three classes of society. The distinct feature of the middle class was they were the only ones who worried (or thought) about the future. The lower class is too busy worrying about today, and the upper class is too busy thinking about the past.

  30. Lynn says:

    “The Donald Trump Conversation: Murdoch, Ailes, NBC and the Rush of Being TV’s “Ratings Machine””
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/donald-trump-murdoch-ailes-nbc-816131

    Trump hates NAFTA! A man after my own heart!

    Trump! Trump! Trump!

    I want to vote in both Primaries! It is not fair that I have to choose.

    I wonder how Bernie feels about NAFTA?

  31. MrAtoz says:

    Many lol’s today: Subway Jared pleads guilty to child porn and sex with minors. HILLARY!’s email server kept in the shitter. “Ashely Madison” hackers post 37 million cheaters names. “Black Lives Matter” community organizer revealed as WHITE! Wut A Kountry!

  32. nick says:

    One plus with a Trump presidency (although it will sound petty and sexist) is that we will finally have a leader with a wife that looks as good as the other world leaders’ wives. It’s been a long running meme how plain ms obammie is compared to others.

    Particularly funny w/ the media trying out the idea to see if they can undermine Trump that way.

    Hot wife looks like a plus to me.

    nick

  33. nick says:

    BTW,

    Very glad that I got out what I could and protected the rest of my retirement funds that are in equities.

    I can look at bloomberg and NOT feel a stomach clenching anxiety.

    Convinced wife to get a big chunk of her’s out of equities too.

    Sometimes, the little guy can time the market.

    nick

    BTW, anyone with money in stock funds- get out! Everyone agrees that there is no organic reason for the valuations, lots of shenanigans behind the scenes, and all the ‘smart money’ is running for the doors. If you have profits, TAKE THEM. Then maybe you will KEEP them. You will sleep better at night.

    (not intended as investment advice, purely for educational value) /lawyer

  34. nick says:

    Oil’s down, stocks are down,

    gold and silver are up,

    tell me again how PMs have no real value?

    nick

  35. Lynn says:

    tell me again how PMs have no real value?

    Prognostication Manager?

    Profit Motives?

    Personal Maintenance?

  36. Dave says:

    I had a brilliant business idea. I was going to open my own Internet hosting service, but then I realized none of our bathrooms have closets.

  37. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    We looked at one house that had a closet that had a closet.

  38. OFD says:

    “Personal Maintenance?”

    Precious metals.

    “I had a brilliant business idea. I was going to open my own Internet hosting service, but then I realized none of our bathrooms have closets.”

    And a riff off the snare and cymbals! This is Late-Night-worthy, sir!

  39. Jack Smith says:

    RBT said “Across culture and across millennia, they came up with two standard solutions: (1) kill them, and (2) enslave them.”

    To that I would add (3) exile. In Roman times, exile was an option for the rich with good political connections. And, by the late 1600’s the British exiled common criminals to the southern colonies, Georgia and the Carolinas. Then, after the Revolutionary War, to Australia.

    The first prisons in the sense we know them today, where a fixed term sentence was imposed is a relatively recent invention.

    For the history buffs out there, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ has reports of nearly 200,000 criminal trials at the Old Bailey between 1674 and 1913. Although many crimes were punishable by death, you can see the judges temper that where it would have been inequitable by a verdict for a lesser crime.

  40. Miles_Teg says:

    “Have I mentioned that I love Amber Marshall?”

    Never heard of her. Is she as beautiful as Sandra Bullock?

  41. Chad says:

    Opening up combat MOS’s for women and actually putting them in the line of fire are not the same thing. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

  42. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    She’s Amy Fleming, the lead character in the Canadian series Heartland.

    Amber is pretty, as in the 27-year-old girl-next-door. She’s not stunningly beautiful, but she’s better looking than Sandra Bullock.

    I’m not sure how good an actress she is, because in Heartland she plays herself, literally. She’s been riding and training horses since before she started elementary school. She’s also been rescuing animals and working in a vet clinic. A few years ago, she bought a ranch outside Millarville, Alberta, Canada, not far from where the on-location scenes for Heartland are shot. It’s not a hobby farm. She and her husband Shaun are working ranchers when she’s not shooting Heartland.

    I don’t think anyone in Oz runs the series, although a lot of people would like them to. You’d find it reminiscent of McLeod’s Daughters, but much better.

  43. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    re: exile

    Not an option in the scenario we’re discussing.

  44. Chad says:

    Trump has two big things going for him…

    1. In addition to the completely stupid stuff that comes out of his mouth there is also a lot of raw truth. He’s saying a lot of things that a lot of people are thinking but are too scared to say out loud. His irreverence is a breath of fresh air in the stale world of politics where rarely is anything said without first conducting polling and running it past a focus group.

    2. He is frustrating the hell out of the liberal media. They keep playing his latest appalling sound bites thinking each one will be the one that ends his campaign and instead his numbers go up. He is nearly impervious to the liberal media machine and I find that extremely hilarious. He’s hogging the headlines.

    If he doesn’t win the primary and runs as a third party or independent candidate then we’ll have a repeat of 1992 where the only reason Clinton got elected was because Ross Perot split the Republican vote. Having Trump as the third name on most ballots will just guarantee another Democrat (likely Hillary) administration.

    For now, it’s all just very amusing.

  45. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    That would concern me more if I thought it’d make any difference at all whether a D or R is president. This is an out-of-control downhill train. No one could stop it if they wanted to, and all the D’s and nearly all the R’s don’t want to.

  46. nick says:

    @lynn,

    Nat’l weather service says watchout for flooding in the land 0 sugar.

    we’re getting a lot of rumbles, some light rain, and the temps are down to 78.

    nick

  47. Lynn says:

    I wouldn’t waste ammunition on prisoners, though. I’d club them to death.

    The guillotine is faster and more reliable. If sharp.

    Could also exile them to the swamps in Louisiana.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7GyLr7Cz2g

  48. Lynn says:

    Nat’l weather service says watchout for flooding in the land 0 sugar.

    My ponds are gaining water, the frogs are croaking, the gators are hungry, and the whistling ducks with the 13 ducklings are scared.

    BTW, if the Land of Sugar could figure out how to tax me for this free sky water, they would.

  49. OFD says:

    “He is nearly impervious to the liberal media machine and I find that extremely hilarious.”

    +1

    They must be having fits. Absolute fits. The online Maoist rag Salon keeps telling its audience how bad Trump is and how terrible this all is, and his numbers just keep going up anyway. So naturally it’s us stupid Murkan fascists’ fault. I don’t look at the Post or NYT or Boston Globe but I can imagine what they must be saying.

    “we’re getting a lot of rumbles, some light rain, and the temps are down to 78.”

    We had thunder and lightning last night but zero rain. Temps have dropped from 90+ to mid-80s and expected to drop a bit more over the next couple of days. T-storms likely. It can drop all the way to 40 as fah as I’m concerned. Leaves already turning orange and red up here with a full month to go of technically still summuh.

  50. Miles_Teg says:

    If you can’t buy the place in the hills that suits you would you think about buying some land and having a place built to spec?

  51. ayjblog says:

    @nick
    just a thought

    The entire crew on the destroyer doubles over in laughter
    and later
    burrocracy

    It seems to me that the language (and cultural BTW) war is over. The small boat people are right, and remember, if the people is ok at home, they dont move, be very afraid when another people moves to replace white collar jobs, as IT as example first and foremost, later nurses, MD, etc.

  52. OFD says:

    “…would you think about buying some land and having a place built to spec?”

    That was always my wittle dream, ’cause I’m a Dreamer, too, ya know! My main motivation before was to have windows, doorways, mirrors and counter tops constructed to accommodate my height, but now it would include multiple security and prepper considerations.

    Meanwhile I live in a house built for and lived in by colonial- and Federal-era munchkins and hobbits.

  53. nick says:

    @ayjblog

    well,

    Burro-cracy is my weak attempt at a pun, given the spanish for ass (donkey) is burro and it’s a homonym for bureau.

    But there is truth there, as my daughters are taught in spanish for half the day in our public schools. They have “dual language” learning tracks, but to me it just seems like a way to put ESL (English as Second Language) in a fancy dress. My daughter’s school is 67% hispanic. Our neighborhood, officially, is 40% hispanic. So where are the missing whites? They are too old for school, or if children, are in private schools.

    This is the real cost of illegal immigration. Taxpayer’s children are forced out of the public school system (that we pay for) by the large numbers of transient illegal children. We (Texas taxpayers- meaning primarily property owners) are educating them, subsidizing their housing, providing their medical care, and even feeding them 3 meals a day. During the summer, they have feeding programs at LIBRARIES for the kids that would normally be eating at school.

    So once again, I’m paying twice if I want a good education in english for my kids, once in tax and once in tuition. Same with healthcare, once for my insurance, and again when my taxes are used to provide subsidies for insurance or care for the poor.

    The school in my immediate neighborhood has even higher percentage of hispanics and draws students primarily from a couple of large apartment complexes, that are all subsidized housing. That school has a 43% turnover rate meaning almost half of the students do not return the next year. That absolutely DESTROYS the ability to teach to the class.

    I’m very tired of it. We don’t even need to deport those already here. That is a red herring. All we have to do is remove the incentives, provide some mild disincentives and they will self deport.

    nick

  54. nick says:

    @OFD, I’m always surprised how low the ceilings and doors are when I visit historic homes. I guess it helped with heating, and conserved materials. I don’t think the people were THAT much shorter, or preferred lower ceilings.

    When there was money, the ceilings and doors are VERY high, then as now.

    nick

  55. MrAtoz says:

    burro and it’s a homonym for bureau.

    MrsAtoz would disagree with you White Man. Viva La Raza!

    Trump 2016!

  56. nick says:

    @Mr AtoZ

    Wellll, close enough for a pun. 🙂

    nick

    I agree, Long live my Race!

  57. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    People actually were a lot smaller back then. A lot smaller.

  58. Miles_Teg says:

    ” I’m always surprised how low the ceilings and doors are when I visit historic homes.”

    I stayed with friends of my father in Cornwall in 1990. They had a farm near a smallish town, not sure how old the house was, but when I was shown to my room I saw that I’d have to duck to get through the door. I did but not enough. If I’d been a hobbit I would have been okay. I think.

  59. Rick H says:

    Here’s a job opportunity…might not be much competition. Long commute, though.

    https://www.ziprecruiter.com/jobs/pae-antarctica-contract-ff3dde42/service-writer-working-in-antarctica-6cc0dce2

    Weather might be a factor, also.

  60. OFD says:

    “I’m very tired of it. We don’t even need to deport those already here. That is a red herring. All we have to do is remove the incentives, provide some mild disincentives and they will self deport.”

    +1

    Well, that is of course rayciss and you have lots of micro-aggressions going on right there, hombre. Come one, come all, you wretched friggin’ masses, yearning to be free, you Dreamers, doing it outta love…come one, come all…Mr. nick and Mr. OFD and Mr. RBT and Mr. Lynn all got bottomless pockets…

    When our daughter was in “middle skool” her class went on a field trip to Boston’s “Freedom Trail” via bus and I was one of the adult minders on this caper; one of the first sites we visited was Paul Revere’s house (remember him? He’s outta the history books now, along with that other dead white rascal, Robert E. Lee) (and the Longfellow poem isn’t taught anymore, either, listen my children and you shall hear…).

    Anyway, I had to practically crawl through there on my friggin’ hands and knees; bearing in mind the Reveres had been Huguenots, and thus typical midget Froggies anyway, let alone how much shorter peeps were back then.

    And guys like one G. Washington and one T. Jefferson were considered freakish because they were so tall; both around 6’4″ with the latter having the additional sign of trouble with his red hair. I am Tom Brady’s height and have about twenty pounds on him and am much older and in much crummier shape, obviously. Also a lot poorer. So next time you see him be-bopping around the field (when his four-game suspension is up) note the size of the guys coming at him. Now that’s some scary chit right there.

    “Weather might be a factor, also.”

    I wonder what the pay is…if I was forty years younger…any hotties down there ya think?

  61. nick says:

    “any hotties down there ya think?”

    Got a feeling that after the first few months, cute wouldn’t even enter into it.

    nick

  62. OFD says:

    “Got a feeling that after the first few months, cute wouldn’t even enter into it.”

    True, dat; us men are such pigs.

  63. ayjblog says:

    Well, welcome to the future, think, 1840, know nothing (forgive my english), 1920, all italians are Mafia, and so on.
    And regarding to pay twice, again, it happens in all sites that have liberal or non-existent immigration policy, we, as example, and, we have a lot of our neighbours coming here since 30? 40? years, before that, Europeans. Now we pay, for those who can afford it, everything, and the richer, gated communities (useless)
    But begin to worry when the most educated people come to replace college degrees, now we have a lot of people who come here and graduated here (college is free)
    PS1 The distinction between former and actual immigration is only descriptive
    PS2 College meaning is on North America meaning, BS, MD etc. MS and Phd have costs
    So, you have a long time yet to enjoy AFAIK the only dollar printing machine is yours, but yuan is coming, and, I presume, will be worst

    So far so good

  64. Lynn says:

    So, you have a long time yet to enjoy AFAIK the only dollar printing machine is yours, but yuan is coming, and, I presume, will be worst

    The world’s bankers did not like the Chinese playing with the value of the yuan last week.
    http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/08/will-the-yuans-fall-force-china-to-re-energize-reforms/

  65. SteveF says:

    The PRC’s economy is brittle. And all of the economic numbers coming from the PRC are totally made up. Compared to the PRC, the US looks good — our government-provided economic numbers are only 95% garbage.

  66. OFD says:

    “….our government-provided economic numbers are only 95% garbage.”

    Excellent financial analysis, Mr. SteveF! Outstanding! The Red Chinese numbers are 100% rubbish while ours are only 95%—-We win! Winners! Win-Win!

    In the next few years we’ll be able to say, our numbers really suck, but everyone else’s suck even worse! We win! Winners!

    So…we’ll have a Depression-level dystopia and the rest of the world will have Armageddon-Apocalypse.

    Which, by the way, will also be the case in our big cities. Smoking rubble and slag heaps, with mobs of demented revenants dancing around to blasting hip-hop and salsa…feasting on roasted couch potato BBQ…mmmm….yummy!

  67. Lynn says:

    I am fascinated by the unemployment numbers of shadowstats:
    http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

    The government number is 5% and the shadowstat number is 23%. I know several people in two very different groups, under 30 and over 50. Both groups seem to be underemployed and unemployed. My feeling is that the actual unemployment is closer to the 23% number than the 5% number.

    My 60 year old neighbor got laid off last January???. He was looking for a new job but told me the other day that he is retiring. For quite a while now, I have been noticing that if you lose your job after 50, good luck in finding a new job. That is another reason that I want to extend Medicare down to 50, then to all documented citizens.

  68. nick says:

    We are already in a Depression level dystopia.

    1/4 of working age people don’t participate in the working economy

    50% receives payments of some kind from the gov

    We don’t have bread lines because we have EBT cards

    We don’t have riots because no one believes it will help

    We do have people paid to stand in front of businesses with a sign – iconic image from Depression = human sign post = Eat At Joe’s

    We do have elites getting fatter, just look at the articles on bloomberg.com or the ads in Fortune Magazine. Watches, fine whiskey, super cars, luxury goods.

    So this time, the Elites have hung on longer due to financial shenanigans learned in previous bad times, but they will crash soon too.

    nick

  69. Lynn says:

    Mr. nick and Mr. OFD and Mr. RBT and Mr. Lynn all got bottomless pockets…

    Speak for yourself, the home addition is cleaning out my pockets. I had really planned and saved up for a 200 ft2 addition on the side of the house. The HOA nixed that, “No changing the front elevation!”, and so I went with the 455 ft2 addition on the back of the house. Just about double the cost and I had to borrow some money to finish paying off the GC and the A/C guy. There goes my new Expy for three years or so.

    Anyway, I had to practically crawl through there on my friggin’ hands and knees; bearing in mind the Reveres had been Huguenots, and thus typical midget Froggies anyway, let alone how much shorter peeps were back then.

    I was in Tokyo back in 2005? and my friend took me to a basement bar and grill in a very old building. I knew I was trouble when the doorway was 5’6″ (I am 6’1″). The ceiling inside was 6’4″ or so but there was a six inch wood beam every two ft or so. I nailed several of the beams while we were there. But, the food was great and so was the saki.

  70. medium wave says:

    A little something to lighten the mood: “Blindingly blonde”

  71. nick says:

    Well, I found and installed the programming software for my auction purchase Kenwood walkie. Other than some windows driver issues with my programming cable, it went smoothly. It uses my Baofang cable (called “Kenwood style” by some, so makes sense) and is super easy. Only changed some alpha tags and put in our main local repeater so far, but I’m psyched. I had to buy a charger, so for about $45 total, I’ve got a commercial quality UHF radio with a whole bunch of memory. More than I can use anyway.

    Spent the day listing stuff on ebay. Got a ton more to do. Sold some stuff on Craigslist yesterday. Garage and pocket are the tiniest bit happier. Gotta keep up the momentum.

    Took a rifle in to consign it, and found out the upper was worth as much as the whole rifle. Appears to be NOS vietnam era M16A2 upper, in excellent condition. Don’t think it was ever fired. Supposed to be a bunch of guys who are looking for this exact thing, so hooray. Might still lose money on the rifle overall, but need the cash and would like a more modern style for the rifle anyway. If I rebuild it, I should be able to get the upper I want, and be net zero, or even slightly positive. That would be nice.

    Doesn’t sound like much but it ate 2 days.

    jeez

    nick

  72. OFD says:

    “For quite a while now, I have been noticing that if you lose your job after 50, good luck in finding a new job.”

    My next-younger brother and I can attest to this. And both of us are fully capable of working full-time plus OT for many years to come, but no one wants us. So we’ve been involuntarily “retired” about ten or fifteen years early.

    “We do have people paid to stand in front of businesses with a sign…”

    Seen that up here a few times, esp. when stores are closing up shop.

    “We do have elites getting fatter, just look at the articles on bloomberg.com or the ads in Fortune Magazine. Watches, fine whiskey, super cars, luxury goods.”

    Saw a bunch of this very recently with the thick-as-a-phonebook insert in the weekend edition of the WSJ. Amazing, truly amazing. They’re not like us, as Mr. nick sez about the other end of the spectrum. So here we are in the middle.

    “The HOA nixed that, “No changing the front elevation!”, and so I went with the 455 ft2 addition on the back of the house.”

    So you’ll be able to accommodate even more Dreamers now, amigo; muchos gracias!

    “I nailed several of the beams while we were there.”

    I do that in my own cellar here regularly.

    “A little something to lighten the mood…”

    Yo, that looks like a fun place! Everybody smiling and laughing, what a happy, happy place! I just bought a plane ticket; maybe they need security on the door or sumthin…

  73. Lynn says:

    Doesn’t sound like much but it ate 2 days.

    Just driving around the Houston metropolitan area is a total disaster nowadays. And people are still moving in, even with the 100,000+ jobs lost in the Houston area since Jan 1. I just had a one story Perry 3509 plan come up for sale around the corner from my house on Monday. It got a contract on it today:
    http://www.har.com/2303-LEGEND-WOODS-COURT/sale_82296874

  74. medium wave says:

    “Why are you in riot gear. We don’t see no riot here!”: There’s one on the way! Patience!

    (So much for the mood ….)

  75. OFD says:

    “And people are still moving in, even with the 100,000+ jobs lost in the Houston area since Jan 1.”

    If ever the SHTF hard enough, I would definitely not wanna be anywhere within several hundred miles of that place. Ditto any other large Murkan city. But that one is huge and what would all those peeps do?

    As one commenter said at Mr. medium wave’s link:

    “If they extend out to the suburbs looting, they will run into a force not bound by any rules of engagement.”

    And if it gets to that point, watch the cops stand by until most of the mayhem has subsided and then they’ll go in and arrest the citizens who had the temerity to fight back.

    We are expected to kneel before the cops, kneel before rioting mobs, and kneel before hadji scimitars and bombs now.

  76. Lynn says:

    “How much RAM? 4GB vs. 8GB vs. 16GB performance”
    http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

    More ram! More ram! More ram!

    16 GB is the sweet spot for me using Windows 7 x64.

  77. nick says:

    I’d like to point out that 16Gb is bigger than HARDDRIVES used to be.

    And not really that long ago.

    nick

  78. OFD says:

    I have 32 GB on one of these machines, I forget which one, and 16 on the other two desktops. Laptops have anywhere from 1 to 8. The 1 is on an ancient Toshiba Satellite that once ran XP and now runs CrunchBang, which is basically kaput and no longer being developed. Now won’t boot off a USB stick and boots from DVDs have been problematic so far.

    My first “PC” was a DEC Rainbow, which ran two different operating systems, had no hard drive, and the RAM was in KB. Had to swap out floppies. Used it as a terminal to connect to my job at DEC and to the Boston Computer Society’s BBS, both now defunct, like me, more or less.

  79. nick says:

    Ah, my first was a Radio Shack Model 1, 4K of ram and a cassette recorder for storage. Set a radio next to it for sound effects. Soldered in a 1k chip so it would display lower case. Should still be at my parents house, with the dust covers and original box.

    Second was the Model 100, the first true notebook sized pc. 300 baud modem. Barcode wand interface, 8 x 40 display. 16k of ram and the same cassette recorder.

    Used it to connect to the Data General at school from the dorm. Got it to print to an Apple dot matrix printer. Ran on AA batteries. That should be at my folks house too. Last time I powered it up, one line on the display was dead though.

    Good times.

    nick

  80. OFD says:

    “…connect to the Data General…”

    I worked at DG back in the day as a wave solder machine operator on the midnight shift, with another demented ‘Nam vet, former Navy UDT guy, and then days in the PC board fab shop, with fiberglass all day. 1977, good times indeed, different music, smoking doobies, driving around central MA, and I was only 24.

  81. OFD says:

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/19/shaun-king-doesnt-rebut-story-about-his-racial-history-in-twitter-meltdown/

    wussup with all these white clowns pretending to be black and then becoming race hustlers even worse than Reverends Sharpless and Jackwagon and Fartinacan?

  82. ech says:

    Here’s a job opportunity…might not be much competition. Long commute, though.

    My former employer is probably the prime on that contract. I lobbied to be on the proposal team and volunteered to do the site visit. Alas, too much competition for it.

  83. OFD says:

    Some common sense on the Dump Trump ass-hats:

    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/08/paul-gottfried/the-plot-to-dump-trump/

    So long as he continues to make the libturds and Repub jerkoffs upset and angry and frustrated and whiny, I’ll enjoy the show he puts on.

    Other than that, I have no dawg in the coming national Charade. Whoever it is will double down on Obummer and the Bush regimes anyway. Things will get a lot worse. As is the design of the rulers, with malice aforethought.

  84. DadCooks says:

    I had the bleeding edge of PCs at my government contractor employer in the early 80s. I remember when they finally allowed me to purchase a 750mb (yes, that is megabyte) Seagate hard drive. Remember how floppy drives were referred to as full-height, eventually becoming half-height. Well this drive was full-height and I swear it weighed 20-pounds. It drew a tremendous amount of power, the lights in our trailer dimmed when I powered up in the morning and it sounded like a jet spooling up 😉 (yes, slightly exaggerated).

  85. Ray Thompson says:

    First PC I ever got when I worked for the bank in San Antonio had a 5 meg (yes, meg) disk drive, full height of course. Wondered how I would fill up all that space. That was in the early 80’s.

  86. Lynn says:

    I’d like to point out that 16Gb is bigger than HARDDRIVES used to be.

    The first computer that I wrote software on was a Univac 1108. 32K words of ram for code space, 32K words of ram for data space. Words were 36 bits. We wrote our own virtual memory storage system in Fortran for that machine. Don’t ask. That was in 1975.

    I had a Radio Shack pocket computer that run Basic in 1980. It was an awesome one line computer that allowed me to iterate engineering problems in Thermo and Heat Transfer classes at TAMU.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_PC-1211#pc1

  87. Ray Thompson says:

    The first computer that I wrote software on was a Univac 1108. 32K words of ram for code space, 32K words of ram for data space.

    You had a big one.

    First machine I wrote code for was an IBM 1401. We had 8K bytes. Word size was variable with word marks. That storage was for code and data. Mass storage consisted of Hollerith cards and Green Bar.

    A 1401 with the optional multiply/divide instruction option could multiple two 80 decimal numbers in approximately 15 minutes with a single instruction.

  88. medium wave says:

    I was gonna brag on my first computer, an IBM 1620 with 20,000 decimal digits of memory, an IBM 1311 disk storage drive, a paper tape reader/punch, and a 3 inch oscilloscope display, but Ray’s 1401 certainly trumps that! 🙂

  89. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    The first real computer I used was a 701. The first computer I owned was a home-built Z80 with 256 bytes (not KB) of RAM, toggle switches for input, and twinkly little lights for output. I may still have it around somewhere.

  90. SteveF says:

    The first computer I had was the jawbone of an ass. (A politician, actually, but close enough.) It didn’t have its bits, and only one bite. And it froze up in the cold, which is a shame because I had to walk 20 miles through the snow to program it. And I was grateful!

  91. Ray Thompson says:

    Ray’s 1401 certainly trumps that

    That machine was reliable. I have been in the room where the machine was located when the A/C was broken. 95 degrees and 80% humidity. The machine was happily chugging along, lights blinking, cards moving, printer moving, operator dropping stacks of cards. No hanging chads in this operation.

    First home built was like RBT’s. Wire wrapped main board, an 8008, 256 bytes of memory, a ROM that allowed the use of switches to load programs, and some LED’s. It was all I could afford. Never did anything with it other than a few simple programs that were useless as all they did was blink the LED’s. Total waste of money.

  92. OFD says:

    “… I had to walk 20 miles through the snow…”

    …barefoot and uphill, while blindfolded, and toting a ruck stuffed with three-ring binders of assembly language code written by Mr. Lynn….with headphones playing the collected speeches of Eleanor Roosevelt and the poetry of Maya Angelou…

  93. Miles_Teg says:

    OFD wrote:

    “I do that in my own cellar here regularly. ”

    I lived in my house in Canberra for 28 years, I could touch the ceiling without going up on to tip toes. For 15 years I regularly walked into light fittings hanging from the ceiling. After that I learned – and only did it occasionally.

    Fortunately the ceiling in my current house is 3-4 feet higher… 🙂

  94. Ray Thompson says:

    with headphones playing the collected speeches of Eleanor Roosevelt and the poetry of Maya Angelou…

    with headphones playing the collected works of Barry Manilow…

    Fixed it for you.

  95. OFD says:

    Cue up the late Boris Karloff:

    “You’re a mean one….Mister Ray!”

  96. SteveF says:

    Did Maya Angelou have any poetry that was her own work? I was under the impression that an awful lot of it –cough-all-cough– was pretty well ripped off from others. Change the title and a few words and bask in the accolades. It’s a sweet gig if you can get it.

  97. Rick H says:

    First PC: IBM 5150, 64K Ram, Cassette Basic operating system. Had an RGB monitor (not composite). Upgraded to 160K floppy drive, DOS 1.0, and 256K more memory.

    Next upgrade was 10MB hard drive, and 320K floppies (two !)

    Pass me the Geritol, please.

  98. OFD says:

    This is turning out to be one of the more entertaining games of charade in a long time:

    “As the old saw goes, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

    “But for Democrats, such counsel comes too late. Hillary is carrying their basket of eggs, and slipping all over the sidewalk.”

    http://buchanan.org/blog/hillary-nominee-or-indictee-16402

    I’d pay serious money to see Cankles and Larry in bright orange jumpsuits on Death Row. With Barry and Moochelle on-deck.

    Serious money.

  99. Miles_Teg says:

    “I’d pay serious money to see Cankles and Larry in bright orange jumpsuits on Death Row. With Barry and Moochelle on-deck.”

    I knew that, if only I lived long enough, you’d say something I completely agree with.

  100. Miles_Teg says:

    My first computer, which I didn’t own, was Adelaide University’s CDC 6400 (may peace and blessings be upon it) running SCOPE 3.4. The first one I did own was a Comodore Amiga 1000 with a mamoth 512K of memory, bought in 1986. I was about to pay $3200 for it when the price dropped to $1600 overnight.

  101. Miles_Teg says:

    Draft Biden? That old timeserver? I was in early high school when he was elected to the senate, and he’s done what? Consumed valuable H2O and O2.

  102. Jim says:

    “Draft Biden? That old timeserver? I was in early high school when he was elected to the senate, and he’s done what? Consumed valuable H2O and O2.”

    … That my truck could be pollutin’!

  103. nick says:

    We don’t WANT politicians to do anything! So that would be a plus.

    nick

  104. Alan says:

    …barefoot and uphill,

    …uphill both ways

  105. MrAtoz says:

    Commodore 64 here. Loved that thing.

Comments are closed.